


Spirits I

by Dark_heika



Series: Daily Prompt Challenges [3]
Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: AU, Gen, Slight HideKane if you squint really really hard, Will have multiple parts, eventually
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-05
Updated: 2015-01-05
Packaged: 2018-03-05 11:07:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3117914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dark_heika/pseuds/Dark_heika
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"She was going to kill you."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spirits I

Hide craned his neck, looking one way, then another. The forest stretched what seemed like endlessly around him, shadowed and silent. A light fog coated the green-carpeted floor a few paces away from him, and coupled with the undergrowth he lost sight of anything specific pretty quickly. Shafts of sunlight fell every so often, providing some measure of light, but did little to soothe his unease.

He’d been on a walk with his new girlfriend. They’d gone by that one wolf statue, the one that seemed to creep everyone else out but only made him feel safer. And then…

He couldn’t remember.

“She was going to kill you.”

He jumped and spun on his heel. Behind him stood a boy about his age. His eyes were two different colors, one grey, one red in black sclera, and his hair was white as death. His hands were tucked into the pockets of his hoodie, but the nails on his bare feet were black.

“Who are you?”

The boy shrugged. “Didn’t you hear what I just said?”

He eyed him suspiciously. “Yeah, I’m just more interested in something else right now, Mr. Sneak-Up-Behind-Me.”

A slight smile. “It won’t be the last time.”

He glared again, and the smile dropped.

“The woman you were walking with, Kamishiro Rize. You aren’t the first person she’s lured into my forest.” He looked away. “I didn’t want her to kill you, too.”

Hide blinked, and the boy was gone.

* * *

 

It had been three days since then.

Soon after… whoever he was had disappeared, Hide had decided that standing around in the middle of the woods wouldn’t get him anywhere, picked a direction, and started walking. He’d figured out a few hours later that he was heading north when the sun started to set, but it didn’t seem to matter. He couldn’t find any landmarks or anything.

He could almost swear he was still exactly where he’d started.

More than that, though, he was starving.

He hadn’t found a stream or any plant that even looked remotely edible since he’d started walking. He knew Mr. Jump Scare’d said he’d saved him from his murderous girlfriend, but then why did he leave him to waste away like this?

It was night, now. The full moon could be seen through the thick canopy of leaves overhead, and the cool air provided some measure of comfort to his exhausted form. The snatches of sleep he’d caught since coming here hadn’t been enough, but even climbing into a tree didn’t help him sleep when he constantly felt like he was being watched.

A rustle in the bushes caught his attention, and he snapped his gaze towards it to find…a rabbit?

After a few moments of staring at each other, the rabbit turned back to where it’d materialized from and hopped away. For a moment, Hide felt like slapping himself. Yeah, he had no idea how to cook rabbit, but it was the first thing he’d seen in days that was actually edible!

A moment later, though, the rabbit was back. Not feeling like looking serious gift horse in the mouth, he slowly began to approach the small creature, only for it to hop away a few times every time he drew near. It never ran out of sight again, though.

Eventually, it led him to a small clearing, and… _water_.

He could’ve kissed the thing.

He half-stumbled, half-ran to the stream, and immediately plunged his hands into the icy water. In the back of his head, he knew the water probably wasn’t half as clean as it felt, that he could get sick from it… but he really didn’t care just then.

“Idiot… I knew he’d forgotten.”

He flinched, and fell backwards in his attempt to see who had crept up behind him _this_ time.

A violet-haired girl was leaning against a tree at the edge of the clearing, a trio of rabbits at her feet, her expression blank. What really caught his attention, though, was her eyes – black sclera, red irises – and the single wing folded behind her back, glowing with he wasn’t sure how many colors.

“Who are you?” He rasped. He really had to stop meeting people this way.

She raised an eyebrow. “Are you going to drink or not?”

“Yes, but… who are you?”

She stared at him for a moment longer. “No one of importance. Now drink. I don’t have all night.”

After another moment, he turned his attention back to the stream. He dipped his hands back into the stream and brought the water to his lips. Perhaps it was just that he hadn’t had any for the last several days, but it was the best he’d ever tasted in his life.

After several more handfuls, a tap on his shoulder brought his attention back to the girl. “Don’t drink too much. Now I’m sure you’re hungry.”

He nodded, and suddenly food was there, all sorts of fruits and vegetables and breads. He dug into them greedily.

She sat silently for a moment, then spoke. “I apologize for the idiot. He forgets humans have needs at times. There will be others making sure he doesn’t do it again.”

He put down his plate for a moment. “Who are you guys, anyway?”

“Does it matter?”

“Well, I need something to call you at least, right?”

She paused. “Most of our names… you couldn’t pronounce them. Mine included. But the one you met several days ago is Kaneki Ken.”

**Author's Note:**

> A weird little AU. But most of my AUs are weird. So it's not really surprising.
> 
> This started out involving Ayato and Yomo and just generally got more and more complicated. And then I realized I was way above my minimum word count, and I probably wasn't going to to finish this today anyway.
> 
> I'll post the next segment tomorrow. I don't like the idea of picking a new prompt until I finish up this one.


End file.
